Management Team

Roman M. Wittig

Roman M. Wittig (Director of Tai Chimpanzee Project)

Roman is the director of the Taï Chimpanzee Project since 2013, and Principle Investigator for topics related to Behavioural Ecology, Cognition, Hormones and Life History of the Taï Chimpanzees and mangabeys.

Some recent publications in relation to the project:

Boesch, C., & Wittig, R. M. (2019). The chimpanzees of the Taï forest: 40 years of research. Cambridge University Press.

Fabian Leendertz

Fabian Leendertz (Head of Veterinary Unit)

Fabian is the Head of the Veterianry Unit at TCP since 2000. He examines the distribution and circulation of many microorganisms, including some with zoonotic potential, in wild nonhuman primate communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The Taï chimpanzees have been of particular interest for him since he conducted his PhD at TCP.

Liran Samuni

Liran Samuni (TCP long-term data manager)

Liran is Manager of the long-term data of TCP since 2018, including more than 50 group years of behavioural and 20 years of hormonal data. She is deeply involved in the the Behavioural Ecology of the chimpanzees, as well as the Pan-Pan Comparison

Scientific Team

Tatiana Bortolato

Tatiana Bortolato

Tatiana started as a research assistant in Tai in 2018. After completing her tenure she became a PhD student in the EBC project at Tai, researching the communicative milestones during the development and the vocal repertoire of wild chimpanzees.

Aisha Bründl

Aisha Bründl

Aisha joined TCP in 2019 as a postdoc in the EBC project. Since then she investigates the milestones of development in chimpanzees, focusing on the three habituated groups of TCP (North, South and East Group).

Clement Gba

Clement Gba

Clement joined TCP in 2015 to observe the newly habituated group of mangabeys. Clement used two years of behavioural observation and food availability data to investigate the food competition of female and male mangabeys. His first publication was a presentation of the food competition of mangabeys at the meeting of the International Primatological Society at Nairobi, Kenya, 2018.

Cedric Girard-Buttoz

Cedric Girard-Buttoz

Cedric is working on the Pan - Pan comparison. He investigates the behavioural and cognitive differences between wild bonobos and chimpanzees, using observational and field experimental data collection methods. Since 2019 he is also involved in the Ape Attachment project.

Kathrin Kopp

Kathrin Kopp

Kathrin is with the project since 2019 working on the EBC project. Since then she focuses on the behavioural and cognitive diversity in chimpanzees under Zoo conditions. Kathrin and her team of research assistants conducts behavioural observation, as well as cooperation task and tool experiments, across Zoos in Germany.

Sylvain Lemoine

Sylvain Lemoine

Sylvain joined TCP in 2013 as a PhD student. He served as a project manager for three years during 2013 - 2016 while he collected the data for his PhD on within- and between-group competition of wild chimpanzees within the Behavioural Ecology Unit of TCP.

Mathieu Malherbe

Mathieu Malherbe

Mathieu started as Project manager at TCP in 2018. After his first field season he became a PhD student in the Behavioural Ecology section of TCP, investigating the behavioural variability between neighbouring groups in Tai, using behavioural observations, video footage and experimental field techniques in all four groups of chimpanzees.

Virgile Manin

Virgile Manin

Virgile joined TCP as a research assitant starting with the habitzuation of North-East group in 2015. He became Project manager in 2017 and started his PhD on Sociality and Health in 2018.

Patrick Tkaczynski

Patrick Tkaczynski

Patrick joined the Ape Attachmnet project in 2016. Since then he is investigating the maternal effects on behavioural, hormonal and cognitive variation between different populations and groups of chimpanzees.

Prince Vale

Prince Vale

Prince has joined TCP in 2016. His PhD research investigates the energy balance of the Taï Chimpanzees, combining behaviour observations, energy measures of food items, urinary c-peptide and thyroid hormone measures as well as travel distance. His first publication was a presentation on c-peptide measures related to ecological and social measures at the 2nd meeting of the African Primatological Society in Entebbe, Uganda, September 2019.

Research assistants

Mathilde Grampp

Mathilde Grampp

Mathilde joined TCP the first time in 2015. After her year with TCP she worked with Budongo Conservation Field Station in Uganda and returned 2018 to TCP in order to collect data for a comparison on social complexity of chimpanzees and mangabeys.

Christelle Nihouarn

Christelle Nihouarn

Christelle started as a reserach assistant for the North Group in 2018: After her tenure was over, she decided to continue working with the Tai chimpanzees. She is collecting data for a project related to EBC and Ape Attachment: play behaviour of infants, juveniles and subadults in all four groups.